1.14 Writing (about) Academic Discourse

At the beginning of the chapter, we suggested that good writers use a combination of various modes of writing (such as narration, description, definition, classification, comparison and contrast, causal analysis, problem-solution, and persuasion) within a single text. Choose the text from this chapter that you believe demonstrates best how (and exactly where) a writer uses at least three of these modes in an effective combination. Or find a good example of academic discourse (a textbook chapter; a scholarly article in your library database; or a print, audio, or video instructional guide) in your major or field of interest, and explain how its mix of modes enhances its effectiveness.

Compare, contrast, and show the connections among the following concepts, ideas, and approaches that appear in texts in this chapter:

Compare, contrast, and connect the following texts in this chapter with the following texts from other chapters:

Make a list of your expectations of college—its academics, its teachers, and its students. What will the college experience be like? What will college do for you? How will it change your life (besides the obvious financial advantages)? What do you expect to learn? Why did you choose the college you chose (be honest!)? Will you transfer or pursue graduate or professional studies? What are your work expectations? Choose one or more of these questions as the basis for a blog entry or short essay about higher education, especially drawing on your own experience as a first-year college student. Consider, especially, what sort of misconceptions you have discovered as you compare your expectations with reality. How might colleges do a better job representing themselves more realistically to prospective students and helping students to succeed once enrolled? What accounts for the vast range in the types of postsecondary institutions available to adults? Is such diversity a good thing or bad thing? Do academically “deserving” people have an inherent right to a college education? Who or what should determine access? Why and how?

Perhaps nowhere on the web is the entire array of academic discourses, disciplines, and practices more on display than in a college or university’s website. Imagine that you are a web presence consultant for your college or university. Using materials from your college’s website, catalog, mailings, advertisements, brochures, and/or tours, determine your college’s mission, vision, image, and brand. Now take a closer look at your college’s website with a fresh set of eyes. Follow the links to some of the internal pages under each of the subcategories. Study the image your college is trying to portray about its campus and faculty, its students and student life, and its academics and even its athletics. What are the exact audiences your college is trying to reach? Which audience seems to be the priority and why? How would you suggest improving the site in your role as a consultant?

Choose a college other than your own in which you have an interest (for possible transfer or graduate study). Using some reliably objective sources, gather and review some basic facts about the college you have chosen to examine in more detail. Analyze and write about the college or university’s image, with a special focus on any discrepancies between facts you have gathered independently about the college (from the US News & World Report rankings, for example) and claims the college makes for itself in its own marketing. Address how the college presents itself to its public constituencies (parents, students, alumni, faculty and staff, state legislatures/governors, boards of trustees). Analyze and write about its use of the following three rhetorical appeals:

You have been exposed to the practices of a number of academic disciplines in this chapter: economics (Smith and Marx and Engels), political science (Kennedy), educational theory (Tatman, Edmonson, and Slate) and practice (the “Common Core” and the “Framework”), information technology (Chickering and Ehrmann), history (Jefferson), anthropology (The New England Primer Improved and the First Year Book), marketing (Solomon, Cornell, and Nizan), and statistics (the US Census Bureau), among others. Apply one of these disciplines to a text, issue, or question of your choosing, then write about the same text, issue, or question from another of these disciplines. The point of the exercise is to illustrate how looking at the same text, issue, or question through different disciplinary lenses leads to different insights. If you prefer, you can choose to look at your chosen text, issue, or question from another academic discipline not included here or exemplified in this chapter—for instance, a discipline you are studying or intend to study in college.

The spirit of much of this chapter has been to encourage you to reflect on your own learning—past, present, and future—as a result of taking an inside look at how educators at various grade levels (from K–16) across multiple generations have thought of their trade and mission. In that same spirit, this assignment calls for you to think like an educator and to write for an audience of educators about ways to improve a specific aspect of education. For example, let’s say you want to suggest reforms to ease the transition from high school to college. You could use the following statement of purpose outlining your proposed voice, audience, message, tone, attitude, and reception:

• Voice. I am writing with the professional, authentic perspective of a first-year college student.

• Audience. I am writing to both entry-level college students and professionals in student services.

• Message. I am suggesting ways to improve the integration of students into the college life, curriculum, and model of education.

• Tone. The relationship I am establishing with my readers is respectful, critical, productive, collaborative, and forward looking.

• Attitude. The attitude I am taking toward my subject is that I am applying the critical thinking skills I’ve just been taught. After all, I am being asked in college to become better at responding to my surroundings and my fellow students in a more constructive way, so here’s an example of what I can do when I’m given the authority to make constructive suggestions.

• Reception. I hope my readers will take into consideration what they think is constructive to make changes that will affect the next class of entering college students.

Or let’s say you want to rewind to your high school years, and make specific suggestions about reforming some aspect of the curriculum in grades 9–12. Here’s how a statement of purpose might look for that project:

• Voice. I am writing with the professional, authentic perspective of a recent high school graduate.

• Audience. I am writing to my high school principal and/or school board superintendent.

• Message. I am suggesting ways to improve secondary (9–12) education, so that future students can be better prepared for college and career.

• Tone. The relationship I am establishing with my readers is respectful, critical, productive, and forward looking.

• Attitude. My attitude toward the subject is that high school was great, but it could have been better. I was asked to be a critical thinker, so here’s a piece of my mind.

• Reception. I hope my readers take into consideration what they think is constructive to make changes that will affect the next generation of high school students.

No doubt you can come up with other variations on this assignment as you or your instructor sees fit. It’s worth mentioning that this assignment lends itself to collaboration through the use of a class-wide wiki. Twenty heads are better than one, so if you can agree to focus collectively on one of these areas of education (the first year of college or the high school years) or another of your own devising, consider creating a web page where each student in the class can post their reform ideas. Then “publish” the web page by sending the link to it to your intended audience (the college or high school officials most empowered to make use of your suggestions).

This chapter of readings has merely scratched the surface of the open educational resources that are available to college professors and their students: not only older texts in the public domain, but also, increasingly, articles and whole textbooks freely accessible online. Your job in this assignment is to create and curate a collection of readings for a three-week unit of a future first-semester, first-year college composition course. (You could present your recommendations as an excerpt from a syllabus, modeling formats used in your current courses.) After a comprehensive web search in an area or theme of your choosing, determine and briefly describe the exact collection of “readings” (any kind of “texts” defined very broadly), and come up with ideas for how to use your readings as the basis for major and minor writing assignments. Present the items in the collection in the recommended order in which you want the students to “read” (or “view” or “listen to”) them. Discuss how students could use these writing and reading assignments to meet some of the course outcomes for an introductory college writing course (see the Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing or your own syllabus for guidance). Adapt your own statement of purpose from this starting point:

• Voice. I am writing as college composition student.

• Audience. I am writing to college composition instructors.

• Message. I am writing about a collection of texts on the web that I think first-semester college composition students would benefit from using as a basis for their writing. I am writing to demonstrate that a DIY, home-made collection of readings is a viable alternative to a pricey, published collection. I am writing to prove that students can and should have a hand in determining the readings for their introductory college writing courses.

• Tone. The relationship I am establishing with my readers is one of mutual respect, tinged with a sense of urgency.

• Attitude. My attitude toward my message is positive, cost conscious, semirevolutionary, empowered, and cutting edge.

• Reception. I want my audience of college instructors to try out these suggested reading and writing assignments with their students.

Note: You may also decide to include some texts that are included or referenced elsewhere as a way of getting to know the rest of this collection. Or better yet, let the rest of this collection inspire you to explore new, hypertextually connected avenues.

Thanks to the Internet, an increasing supply of intellectual material is available to anyone with a high-speed, broadband connection. If you can essentially find the equivalent of an entire four-year-college curriculum online, what is the value of a traditional, residential college education costing as much as $200,000? Specifically, how can higher educational institutions remain relevant and add value over online alternatives?

In a reflective letter introducing a portfolio of your work in the course, use the cognitive skills (outcomes) and affective dispositions (habits of mind) in the Framework for Success in Undergraduate Writing and/or the material on page 7 of the Common Core State Standards (“Students Who Are College and Career Ready in Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening, and Language”) as metrics for describing your development as a writer, reader, and thinker over the course of the semester. Make sure you include specific examples of your written work and other experiences in the course as artifacts or evidence to prove exactly where and how you have developed in these areas as a college student. Your instructor may elect to use this assignment as a minor or major portion of your grade for the course, based on the quality of the artifacts you present as evidence (some of which you may elect to revise from their original form as a way of showing your improvement) and the quality of your reflection about your progress.

Note: This assignment calls for you to reflect on your development as a writer, reader, and thinker during your introductory college writing course, so it’s best attempted and accomplished near the end of the term.